1. Mark Guzdial College of Computing/GVU Georgia Tech
Computing for Everyone: Introduction to Computing via a Media Context for Non-CS Majors
Mark Guzdial College of Computing/GVU Georgia Tech
Studies of computing education report students find computing to be dull, lacking creativity, and irrelevant.
Our Hypothesis: By teaching computing in a context that is useful and creative, we can improve success rates and draw in broader participation.
Next steps:
Text for Python course now available from Prentice-Hall. - Media Computation materials in Java, published by Prentice-Hall in Dec A follow-on course covering data structures in Java, continuing in a media context, started Spring 2005—75% female - Created a new CS minor, and a new BS in Computational Media—36 students signed up in first semester.
CS1315 Introduction to Media Computation
Goal: Learning programming and CS concepts within the context of media manipulation and creation: Converting images to grayscale and negatives, splicing and reversing sounds, writing programs to generate HTML, creating movies out of Web-accessed content.
Computing for communications, not calculation
Example student work
Enrollment
Success Rate
Georgia Tech’s CS 1 (male-majority)
(average)
930
71.2%
Media Computation (female-majority)
Spring 2003-Fall 2004 (average)
260.8
83.3%